Hey guys, after much trouble with my recently purchased John Deere 950 with a Yanmar 3 cylinder diesel, it finally decided enough was enough tonight.
The engine started developing some blow-by this afternoon. As the blow by increased, it started to miss.
Thats when I decided to head back to the house.
Before I could get to the house, the blow-by was to the point where it blocked visability. As I approached the house, a loud finger-down-chalkboard squeel become present followed with a heavy tapping (know quite a knock).
I pulled the tractor to the side of the house and proceeded to back it in to its storage when that tap-tap sound become one knock, to knocks, then.... the engine stuck.
Stopped that engine cold, shook that tractor pretty good.
Put her in neutral and pushed her the rest of the way into storage.
Im guessing, she's done.

So, Im thinking I'll just go through the whole tractor, replace tranny seals, clutch and obviously the engine.
Any helpful tips on going through the engine?


Rich.

 

I'm willing to bet the engine could be salvaged. Sounds like its time for a rebuild.

 

Might be cheaper to buy a new used one. Check it out
http://www.tractorhouse.com/listings...+DEERE&mdl=950

 

Yeah, Im sure it can be salvaged. Of course I wont know for sure until I get into it.
Question will be, at what price?

Yeah, you may be correct, but were still making payments on this one!

Rich

 

Not to be ugly, but if you're concerned about payments, not continuing to run it while the engine was fairly obviously self-destructing might have been wise.

In any case, I'd venture to say that as long as internal parts have not become external, the block can be saved. New rings/bearings will be needed of course, and it sounds like the crankshaft will need to be turned.

 

Which Yanmar engine? Found a 3 cyl on the auction site for 2200$ Also saw a new crank for a JD 950 for 750$ Those engines are not inexpensive to repair unfortunately.

Do you have any recourse with the seller? It had to have a lot of wear or no oil supply for it to self destruct.

 

Wonder if a 4 cylinder will fit?
https://www.dieselenginemotor.com/di...ines/84,1.html

 

Yes, Im finding this out quickly.
The clock was reading close to 3000 hours when I bought it. However, the cable that feeds the speedometer/hourmeter had been broken for an unknown amount of time. Thus, the real hours are unknown.
Im guessing the tractor has had some hard hours put her.


The engine is the frame. For that matter, there really is no frame. The engine is the frame in the front and the trans/PTO is the frame in the back.
Thus, Im guessing, as long as the engine can bolt to the trans case, the only thing a longer engine would mean is a longer steering shaft would be needed.

Rich.

 

Somebody has transplanted cummins into tractors like that... can't remember the website off the top of my head, but I'm sure the cheapest route is to fix what ya have.

Too bad you didn't tow into the barn at the first sign of impending doom!

 

Long story short, this isnt the first time the tractor has cried wolf by blowing smoke out of the blow by.
The first time, a seal on the injection pump went bad allowing diesel fuel to pour into the crankcase (which, by the way, could have been the root cause of the most recent failure - considering fuel doesnt work well for engine lube).
Anyway, while I made it sound like it was long time from initial smoke to engine failure was all of about a minute and a half to maybe 2 minutes time.
Most of that was the miss that I mentioned earlier. From the heavy smoke to the knocks was in less than a minutes time.

Im not making excuses and yes, if it were my truck, I wouldve shut her down when when I saw the blow by.
However, Ive about had it with this tractor considering all the recent issues Ive had with it.

Im now pondering my options.
I would like to rebuild it myself. However, time and locations are working against me.
I could have it rebuilt, but that wont happen until next year.
I could replace it with a rebuilt. But again, probably not until next year.

Im also entertaining the idea of going through the entire tractor. Bringing it out for next year as a (close to) completely restored unit.

Rich.

 

Go with the last option - that's what I did on one of my tractors when the engine seized in the field... on the other, bigger tractor, I restored the whole thing just cause I had to take it out of service to weld the exhaust manifold and repair the leaky fuel system.

Any excuse to tinker!

 

Oh, I understand what you mean now about the time frame. I know it kinda sounded like I was tap dancing on your grave about the engine failure, but I didn't mean it that way. I guess I'm kinda blunt sometimes.

 

Looks like a short block at the local Deere dealer runs $6140.00
These engines are not sleeved. Thus, to rebuild them is only slightly cheaper.

Anyway, if the cylender walls are fair, I may just go through the bottom end then freshen up the valve train and see how it goes from there.

Rich

 

If they don't use sleeves, is there any reason you couldn't have a machine shop simply overbore the cylinders like any other engine? In my experience, boring runs about $10 per cylinder if you're not having them bore some huge amount over. I dunno about oversize piston availability-they might be expensive, but I still have trouble seeing a decent rebuild approaching the cost you posted for a short block. That same machine shop ought to be able to do the head(s) if needed.

 

First of all, sorry this happened to you - it's an expensive inconvience, and your time is valuable!

Secondly, wow - these older Deere's are expensive! I really would not have guessed the 950's were still going for 5-9k today. Since it's a structural block, your options of a transplant engine are quite limited. I cannnot recall, however I believe the 870, 970, etc which replaced this series used a non-structural Yanmar 3-cyl engine. I also seem to recall people who had the 850 and 950 series saying they had problems with the engine as well. 3000 hours (or even 4000) does not seem like too much on this machine - what's the possibility of the dealer you purchased it from helping you out a bit? Might be worth asking, at least.

I do know a grounds crew I worked with from '90 - '92 had two 870's which were excellent machines. They also had two 932 front-mount mowers with the 30+ hp Yanmar 3-cyl GAS engine. They were both - saying it kindly - lemons! The engine on one was gone after 550 hours. The other one went not too long after the first one. Very hard to start - liked to flood easily, tended to overheat when used all day (how else is a commerical mower used?) and used lots of gasoline. Both replaced with 935 diesel's in 1993.